This invention relates to two new antibiotics, designated CP-54,715 and CP-54,716, which are produced by a new microbial species Catenuloplanes japonicus Huang sp. nov., strains N381-16 (ATCC 31,637) and N406-14 (ATCC 31,638). The antibiotics are active against gram-positive bacteria.
The genus Catenuloplanes appears to be related to the genera of the Actinoplanacae sensu Couch which produce such antibiotics as taitomycin, lipiarmycin, gardimycin and the like. It resembles genera such as Actinoplanes, Amorphosporangium and Dactylosporangium in having motile spores but contains lysine instead of meso-diaminopimelic acid in the cell wall and produces spores arranged in chains instead of enclosed in a sporangial wall.
The genera other than those of the Actinoplanaceae with motile spores have morphological features e.g. morphology and cell wall composition that differ from those of Catenuloplanes. Oerskovia shows some resemblance to the new genus in the lack of meso-DAP in the cell wall, but differs in the absence of aerial mycelium and the mode of spore formation. Kineosporia and Sporichthya are characterized by a cell wall of Type I; the former exhibits the absence of aerial mycelium and the latter the absence of substrate mycelium. Dermatophilus and Geodermatophilus have a different mode of spore formation, a different cell wall type, and do not produce aerial mycelium. Abundant aerial mycelium is produced by Streptoalloteichus and Actinosynnema, which have cell wall types different from that of Catenuloplanes. Streptoalloteichus produces subspherical to peanut shell-shaped sporangia as well as chains of spores; Actinosynnema, as the name implies, forms a synnema on which chains of spores are produced.